Game of the Week
32  @  37
The must watch game of last week had to have been the Rams at the Giants. The defending champs were up against the NFC East champions on their own turf and they put up one hell of a fight. Kurt Warner's 454 yards passing was impressive, but not enough to offset the 3 interceptions he threw.
With neither the Giants QB Jake Plummer nor HB Tiki Barber having great games, they had to rely on their defense to overcome the high powered Rams offense with a total of 4 takeaways. If the Rams were a little more careful with the ball, this would have been a tale of victory for St. Louis, instead of defeat.
With a newly achieved Scrambler status for QB Jake Plummer, the Giants have a tough road ahead of them. They better hope their defense remains as dominate as they were this past week.
As for the Rams, I expect them to recover against their rivals, the 49ers, who they have not had problems with in the past. However, San Francisco is riding high from a victory at home against the Bears and will give the Rams a good fight.
Blowout Victory of the Week
33  @  7
The Colts offense hasn't slowed down even a bit. Reggie Wayne had nine receptions for 174 yards, proving that his chemistry with Peyton Manning is as strong as ever. Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James were both over the century mark themselves in their respective fields. The three combined for a total of 407 yards and seemed to have just picked off from where they left off last season.
The Cleveland Browns struggled in every facet of the game. David Carr had 3 interceptions with zero touchdowns, their leading rusher put up just 2.67 YPC and their defense recorded minimal pressure on Peyton Manning. Their lone bright spot came with an interception from the young linebacker, Andra Davis.
Next week, the Colts face off against the Titans; a division rival, where they will fight for the top spot in the AFC South. The Titans are coming off from a comfortable win against the Raiders, but face a whole different kind of challenge in Indianapolis.
There is no shame in being blown out by the AFC Champs, but the Browns have two terrible matchups coming up, the first being against the Ravens. If they struggle again against their biggest division rival, then they should probably start worrying that this might not be their season.
Most Valuable Offensive Player
 HB Ahman Green
22 ATT | 174 YDS | 7.91 YPC | 1 TD | 0 FUM
Ahman Green put up 174 of the Packers 286 yards of total offense. As the only player moving the chains and keeping their defense off of the field, Green Bay can thank this man for the narrow victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
The 26-year-old back has the physical attributes to excel in this league, and the Packers only saw a glimpse of that potential last season with a 4.6 Yards Per Carry average. This season he's off to an amazing start, and we'll just have to see if he can keep it up.
The Packers are the only team in the NFC North to come out of Week one with a victory. They face two more of their division opponents in the next three weeks. Only then will we know if the Packers will begin to run away with this division, or if they had merely gotten lucky this week.
Most Valuable Defensive Player
 LE Richard Seymour
5 TAC | 3 SACKS | 1 FORCED FUMBLE | 1 FUMBLE RECOVERED I tend to try to overlook my own player's performances, but when no one else comes close, I just have to go ahead and choose them(It's a struggle). The Patriots ended up with a very close game in Buffalo and walked away with only a three point victory. In a game where no one else particularly shined, Richard Seymour excelled with his three sacks, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery performance.
The Patriots decided to move Seymour to LE this season, something they had debated doing the season before. It seems that move is already paying dividends for their ability to create pressure on opposing teams quarterbacks. However, as to not toot my own horn, I will acknowledge that Rex Grossman is playing in his first-ever SFL game, and this might performance from Seymour may more a fluke than anything else.
The Patriots have a tough schedule coming up, and soon it'll be clear if Seymour can have the same kind of performance against more experienced quarterbacks.Rookie Watch
 MLB Nick Barnett7 TACKLES | 3 FOR LOSS | 1 FORCED FUMBLE | 2 INTS | 1 DFLTIf the Panthers played a closer game against the Jaguars, or I didn't have this category to fall back on, I would have chosen this guys performance as the MVP on Defense. However, thankfully both were true and I was able to shoehorn my own player in his place....
As the category states, Nick Barnett is a rookie. Nick Barnett is playing in his first-ever SFL game, and Nick Barnett already has three turnovers to his stat line. I don't think anyone argued against the fact that Nick Barnett was a decent pickup for the Panthers in the middle of the first round this offseason, but I didn't think he was going to come out swinging by putting up numbers like this in his first game.
Part of his performance was due in part to the Jaguars quarterback being an FA pickup with only70 awareness. The Jaguars relied heavily on their ground game with Fred Taylor putting up over 100 yards at 5 YPC. Billy Volek had a couple of late-game lucky throws but he spent the whole game missing his receivers. Billy Volek completed 4 out of 23 passes for 160 yards. That's 40 yards per completion and one touchdown every two completions. If his completion percentage wasn't 17.4, then that would be impressive.
Even with this terrible QB performance, no one else on the Panthers had this kind of game, so I think Nick Barnett is going to have a great career, and this is just the start.That's Got To Hurt
 MLB London FletcherTORN QUADRICEP | 6 WEEKSThe Bills have one elite linebacker, with some decent starters but very little depth. That elite linebacker is London Fletcher, and that linebacker has just been sidelined for six weeks. This might hurt worse than the close lose to the Patriots.
London Fletcher put up 115 tackles last season(Top ten in the league) with 4 interceptions(tied for 4th for middle linebackers). There is no doubt that Buffalo will miss him for what's going to account for more than a third of the season. |
